1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to temporary barriers, guards, and the like for selectively preventing passage of persons or animals from one point to another. More specifically, the present invention comprises a retractable pet guard which may be extended across the lower portion of a door opening to prevent the escape of pets when the door is open. The present invention automatically extends and retracts when the door is opened and closed, and may be disconnected from one side of the doorway or removed from the doorway as desired for passage through the doorway.
2. Description of the Related Art
In today's society, perhaps the majority of households include pets of some sort. In many instances, such household domestic animals, e.g., cats, small dogs, ferrets, etc., are free to roam throughout the household, but are restricted from going outdoors for various reasons. This is particularly true in the city, where traffic can be extremely hazardous to small animals.
Yet, pets tend to be curious, and are often inclined to explore the outdoors if given the opportunity. Exterior doors often must be opened for various reasons, such as receiving a parcel or food or other order, signing for mail received, greeting visitors or sales persons, etc. As a result, it can be difficult to juggle a delivery of some sort through an opened doorway while simultaneously preventing a pet from escaping. While a full screen door will certainly prevent the escape of a pet from the interior of the home, such conventional full size screens which extend over the entire span and height of the doorway do not allow the passage of goods or articles through the doorway. When they are opened to allow such passage, they leave the doorway completely open, thus permitting a pet to escape if the owner is not ready to prevent such escape.
The present invention provides a solution to this problem by providing a retractable pet guard which may be selectively extended across the lower portion of a door opening, with the upper portion of the door opening remaining clear for the passage of goods or articles thereacross. The present pet guard essentially comprises a flexible net or screen which is rolled upon a spring-biased roller and secured to the latch edge of the door or to the latch side of the jamb. The extendible edge of the mesh or screen is temporarily secured to the opposite side of the opening. The device may remain in place as desired, with the net or screen extending automatically across the lower portion of the door opening whenever the door is opened. The device may be removed for storage when its use is not needed. Another embodiment provides for installation in the lower portion of a casement window or the like, where it automatically extends to provide a screen whenever the window is opened.
A discussion of the related art of which the present inventor is aware, and its differences and distinctions from the present invention, is presented below.
U.S. Pat. No. 337,192 issued on Mar. 2, 1886 to Theodore S. Peck, titled “Adjustable Extension Screen,” describes a fine mesh screen on a roller, with the screen extending laterally across a window opening between the lower edge of the sash and the sill. The screen may be pulled out to whatever span is required, depending upon the width of the window opening. However, the Peck screen does not include any form of housing surrounding the screen to protect the screen when retracted, and as the device is configured for the roller to span an opening, sharp pins are provided at each end of the roller to penetrate the bottom of the sash and the sill to hold the roller in place. This is unsuitable where pets and/or toddlers may come in contact with the device. Moreover, as the Peck screen is not adapted to span a doorway, Peck makes no provision to hold the movable part of the opening (i.e., sash, for the Peck device) open to prevent its swinging shut. The present invention may include an integral door stop and/or retraction stop, to allow the door to remain open and/or to preclude any biasing effect of the retraction spring urging the door closed.
U.S. Pat. No. 834,145 issued on Oct. 23, 1906 to Theodore Landsberg, titled “Window Screen,” describes a retractable screen which is permanently installed upon the window sill and which secures temporarily across the span of the window opening immediately adjacent the sash (not to the movable sash, as in the case of at least one embodiment of the present invention). This permits the sash to be raised or lowered independently of the position of the screen, which defeats the purpose of the screen. Landsberg also does not provide any form of housing to protect the screen, nor does he provide any means of temporarily securing his device across the lower portion of a doorway and/or holding the door in an open position against the biasing force of the retraction mechanism, which features are components of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,295,712 issued on Feb. 25, 1919 to George W. Drew, titled “Coiling Closure,” describes a series of interconnected, narrow slats which retract upon a roller and which may be extended across a window opening or the like. The device is clearly intended to span the entire opening from top to bottom, as the lower edge is provided with rollers and the upper edge rides along the upper edge of the window frame. No external housing per se is provided, as the retraction spring mechanism is permanently installed within the hollow volume of the column along one side of the window.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,857,911 issued on May 10, 1932 to Earle F. Johnson, titled “Window Ventilator,” describes an extension which is angled into the room or structure from the bottom of the window opening. A retractable screen extends across the horizontal span between the top of the extension and the lower edge of the sash, thence extending upwardly and securing to the lower sash rail member. The device is permanently installed, with the ventilator structure serving as a housing for the roller screen. The screen cannot be readily removed from the ventilator and window sash rail, nor can the ventilator be readily removed from its permanent installation at the bottom of the window.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,207,856 issued on Jul. 16, 1940 to John C. Gieser, titled “Window Screen,” describes another retractable window screen contained on a roller in a housing which may be temporarily installed across the lower portion of a window opening. The Gieser device appears to be more closely related to the device of the '145 U.S. Patent to Landsberg, discussed further above, than to the present invention. No means for locking the screen at a given extension, or for precluding closure of the opening due to the pull of the spring-biased screen thereacross, is provided by Gieser.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,379,120 issued on Jun. 26, 1945 to Howard H. Turner, titled “Door Construction,” describes a combination rigid window pane and roller screen permanently installed within a door. The window pane resides in a pocket in the lower portion of the door when retracted, with the screen extending from a roller at the top of the door to cover the open upper portion of the door. When the window is retracted, the screen is drawn down from the roller to cover the open upper portion, and when the window is raised, the screen retracts upon its roller. Thus, the opening in the upper portion of the door remains closed at all times, precluding passage of any articles therethrough. Moreover, the Turner door does nothing to block the lower portion of the door opening when the door is opened, as provided by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,455,112 issued on Nov. 30, 1948 to William F. Christison, titled “Door Guard,” describes a device operating on the pantograph principle and which extends from the bottom edge to the top edge of the door, with a fan-shaped guard extension extending from the upper hinged edge of the door across the arcuate gap at the top of the opened door. Christison states that his device is intended to provide a “burglar proof” guard, and thus spans the entire opening and precludes the passage of any goods or articles through a portion of the door opening, as allowed by the present invention. The rigid construction of the Christison device precludes retraction upon a roller, as provided by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,990 issued on Oct. 14, 1975 to D. Eugene Hoover et al., titled “Window And Screen Combination,” describes an assembly much like the device of the '120 U.S. Patent to Turner, discussed further above. The Hoover et al. device includes a fixed window pane, a horizontally sliding window pane, and a screen attached to one edge of the sliding pane, with the screen deploying from a roller when the sliding pane is moved directly over the fixed pane. The Hoover et al. device thus has the same problem of precluding transfer of articles through the window opening at all times, as noted in the Turner '120 U.S. patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,797 issued on Mar. 24, 1987 to Al E. Lange, titled “Roll-Up Screen Door,” describes a screen extending the full height of the doorway, and which is contained on a roller which attaches along one edge of the vertical jamb. The opposite edge of the screen pulls from the roller to hook to the opposite vertical jamb. Thus, when the Lange screen is deployed, the door opening is completely blocked to the passage of anything larger than the screen mesh. In order to pass objects through the doorway, the entire screen must be rolled up, which opens the lower portion of the doorway to allow the potential escape of pets from the interior of the home.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,474 issued on Jun. 23, 1992 to Richard C. Smith, titled “Roll-Up Closure Device,” describes a roller screen dimensioned to extend across a conventional garage door opening. A motorized roller is installed across the top of the opening, with the screen running in vertical tracks along each side of the opening. While this device may be extended to cover only a portion of the opening, it extends downwardly from the top with the lower portion of any partial extension thus remaining open, which would allow pets to escape. This is exactly the opposite coverage provided by the present pet guard.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,818 issued on Aug. 16, 1994 to George L. Coad, titled “Rollaway Extendable Planar Fabric Enclosure,” describes another rolled sheet of material, with the roller disposed along one side of the opening. A drawbar is used to brace the sheet to its fully opened extent. No external housing is disclosed to enclose the rolled material, and the roller upon which the material is wound is permanently attached to the door frame or other structure; it cannot be readily removed. No disclosure is made by Coad of any means for extending his screen or fabric partially across an opening or passage, as his drawbar system for holding the fabric in place cannot be locked at a partially extended position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,244 issued on Apr. 9, 1996 to Pierce A. Thumann, titled “Retractable Covering For A Door Opening,” describes another full screen assembly which extends from a roller attached along one side of the door frame. The Thumann screen attaches to the outside of the door opening, away from the travel of the door as it pivots upon its hinges. This is necessary in order to allow the door to open away from the screen when the screen is extended across the doorway. The Thumann screen is more closely related to the screens of the Lange '797 and Smith '474 U.S. Patents than it is to the present invention, as Thumann does not provide a screen which leaves a portion of the door opening clear when the door is opened, as does the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,609 issued on Feb. 29, 2000 to Reuben Bahar et al., titled “Foldable Pet Shelter,” describes a screened enclosure which extends inwardly from a conventional pet door at the bottom of an exterior door. The device folds to allow the door to be opened completely against another structure, e.g., wall, furniture, etc. However, when the device is folded to allow the door to be opened, it does nothing to prevent a pet from exiting through the pet door, or through the opening between the door and door jamb when the door is opened.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,302 issued on Jul. 18, 2000 to Merrie Britt, titled “Extensible Doorway Barrier,” describes a rolled screen on a spring-biased roller, with the roller being permanently attached to the door jamb. Hooks are provided along the edge of the door, to which the free end of the screen may be temporarily secured. There are several distinctions between the Britt barrier and the present pet guard. The Britt barrier is relatively simple, and lacks many of the features of the present invention. Britt does not provide a housing for her barrier screen, which would allow pets (particularly cats) to use the mesh as a claw sharpening device, likely causing damage to the screen. Also, the Britt device is permanently attached to the door jamb, and must remain in place at all times. The present pet guard may be removed as desired, with only a pair of unobtrusive attachments remaining behind on the mounting structure for the roller housing. It is further noted that Britt does not provide any means of securing the door when her barrier is extended thereacross. As the screen is being urged to a retracted position at all times due to the roller spring, the device is constantly applying a tensile force urging the door closed whenever it, is deployed. The present pet guard may include a stop retractably extending therefrom to selectively engage the floor, in order to hold the door open. Another device may be provided on the roller itself, to lock the position of the roller as desired and prevent retraction of the screen, thereby allowing the door to remain open.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,254 issued on Aug. 20, 2002 to John M. Todd et al., titled “Flexible Retractable Door,” describes a large number of variations on a coiled plastic sheet which tends to coil within a retracted state within a housing. FIG. 22 of the Todd et al. U.S. patent illustrates a doorway with a coiled screen disposed vertically along one edge thereof, with the screen being extendible across the doorway. However, the Todd et al. screen extends from the threshold to the lintel of the doorway, completely blocking the doorway to the passage of anything larger than the screen mesh when extended thereacross. The Todd et al. device also requires upper and lower tracks or rails for the two edges of the device, with the tracks or rails remaining in place at all times, whether the screen or sheet is deployed or not. This is clearly unworkable for use as a temporary barricade to block the lower portion of a doorway, as provided by the present invention. In such a situation, the upper track or rail must remain in place, resulting in a hurdle which must be crossed whenever someone wished to pass through the doorway. The present barrier needs no such permanent track, and retracts completely clear of the doorway when not needed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,070 issued on Nov. 12, 2002 to John Poppema, titled “Retractable Flexible Door Method And Apparatus,” describes another retractable screen arrangement closely resembling the door screen embodiment of the Todd et al. '254 U.S. Patent discussed immediately above. The same problems exist with the Poppema screen, i.e., a permanent frame is required to be installed within the door opening, with the screen retracting and extending laterally between upper and lower tracks across the opening. There is no way to extend the Poppema screen completely across only the lower portion of the doorway while leaving the upper portion open, as provided by the present invention.
Finally, International Patent No. WO 03/102,345 published on Dec. 11, 2003, titled “Take Up-Type Screen Device Whose Lock Is Releasable From Either Inside Or Outside,” describes (according to the drawings and English abstract) yet another roll-up screen having a surrounding frame which must be permanently installed within a doorway or the like. The same points noted above in the discussion of the Todd et al. '254 and Poppema '070 U.S. Patents discussed immediately above, i.e., the permanent blockage of the doorway by an intermediate track or guide component if such a device were installed to extend only partially vertically up the doorway, applies here as well.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, a retractable pet guard solving the aforementioned problems is desired.